Category Archives: Math and Reading

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There are lots of great ideas on the web for teaching students how to tell time, elapsed time, and other time concepts. A lot of these great ideas also incorporate literacy. Here are a few of some of these great ideas:

Have your students make wristwatches using cardboard tubes for the strap and a paper face, each with a unique time. Then, giving your students a recording sheet, have students walk around the room recording what time each student has on their “wristwatch”. View the activity here.

To help students learn to communicate about time, Kendra at the Aussie Pumpkin Patch blog has this learning clock template with each five minute interval labeled. I love that each half of the circle is labeled with “to” or “past”. This is often difficult for students to learn, and I think this is a great resource. View their blog post here.

Have you come across any great ideas for integrating telling time and literacy? Share them with me!

Have you heard of Laura Candler? After teaching for 29 years, Ms. Candler created the Teaching Resources website and has a love for collaborating with teachers. She has resources for free and for sale, view her website here.

One great math center that’s free on her website is this Place Value partner game and it’s great for incorporating speaking and listening. One student names each digit and it’s place. The second student listens and places cut-out number tiles in the correct positions. Both students compare place value strips and then switch roles.

Have you read Debbie Diller’s book Math Work Stations? It’s full of really great math centers ideas! While Lory read the book, she posted about what she’d learned through each chapter on her blog: Lory’s Page. After reading Chapter 5, Lory posted about some math activities and I noticed her section about math story problems.

I have created classroom books in reading class but this is a great idea to create a classroom book in math class. Students can write their own story problems and you can keep adding their story problems to the Classroom Story Problem book. Lory says when students finish an assignment early, they are allowed to work on any of the problems in the class book.

To get started with this kind of project, create sentence frames that students can copy and add details. Also, incorporate reading by encouraging students to write a math story problem that follows the structure of fiction stories or, for a challenge, create story problem poetry!

For example, have students write their math story problem following the fiction genre sentence frame: “Somebody … wanted … but … so … then …”

Imagine how many story problems you’ll have by the end of the year!

Head over to Jen’s blog, Runde’s Room, to download your free copy of her “Somebody Wanted But So Then” organizer poster, here.

1. Enjoy the story – don’t interrupt with math questions.
2. Read the book aloud. Repeat.
3. Keep the book experience open-ended to engage multiple interpretations.
4. Encourage students to respond to the stories through various forms of expression: poetry, drama, art, narrative, orally.
5. Integrate the books into current themes of study.
6. Use your students as a guide for deciding what to read.
7. Consider your students’ age and your intended use of a book to decide if oral or silent reading is appropriate.

In their article, Watch Your Language! Recommendations to Help Students Communicate Mathematically, Bratina and Lipkin “suggest methods to help students improve their critical reading skills and to become better problem solvers” (p. 3). Here are a few of their suggestions:

2. Create instances for students to experience words in different contexts
For example, include true-false items such as, “Some squares are rectangles.” or “All squares are rectangles.” or “Some rectangles are squares.” Items like these will lead to mathematical conversations and help students to comprehend complex statements (Bratina & Lipkin, p. 5).

3. Provide time for students to practice the language.
“Both comprehension and accuracy are essential for the development of proficiency in mathematics, and should precede attempts to perform operations with speed. But once the students have grasped the meanings of mathematical words and symbols, they need to become fluent in using this mathematical language” (Bratina & Lipkin, p. 7).
Just as students need to master the basics of reading and then practice reading fluently and for comprehension, similarly students need to master the basics of math and then practice math for automaticity.

Suggestions for practicing the language of math:Say it out loudCloze proceduresGames such as word searches, crossword puzzles, and cryptograms

4. Praise student perseverance
“When students are engaged in problem-solving exercises, have them read the entire problem before trying to analyze and dissect it. Then have them read it again. And again! In other words, let the students know that instantaneous understanding is not the norm” (Bratina & Lipkin, p. 9).Instead of asking, “Does everyone understand what we just read?”, ask students to restate or rewrite the problem in their own words.

5. Be a role model (Bratina & Lipkin, p. 10)
Set up a bulletin board as a “Wall of Fame” and post pictures of students when you catch them performing well, such as exhibiting strong communication skills. Share examples of “real” people who are role models and involved in the communication and mathematics world, such as news anchors, and the first female shuttle commander, Air Force Colonel Eileen Collins.